A/N: I've read lots of Disney and Drag Race High School AUs (including the famous Disney High by Nina-d-lux) and when watching Tim Burton a friend and I had an idea to do it with Tim Burton characters. This fanfic will focus mainly on The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Corpse Bride and Edwards Scissorhands, with mentions of other stories used too. Hope you like, please leave a review!
Best friends for years, Sally Dollson, a sweet redhead with the ability to stitch rags into a ball gown and Emily Bridle, a charismatic and beautiful girl who was rarely seen outside of school let alone in, strolled down the halls of T. Burton High, ready to return home after what seemed like the longest week ever.
"I'd give anything for him to ask me to the dance!" Sally admitted humbly, the he in question of course being Jack Skelling, the King of anything at T. Burton High, a leader for the people - he was forever adored. Jack was always the head organiser of the annual Burton dance and he always picked a terrifyingly brilliant theme, the students taking pride in every scare given.
"I'd give anything for anyone to ask me to the dance." Emily sighed, thinking of the disaster that had happened the year before.
"Don't worry, the right guy will, I promise E," Sally reassured her friend.
That's when they saw the third member of their trio across the hall, "Kim!" Emily greeted her enthusiastically. "I haven't seen you all day. You good?"
"Besides from the fact I saw my sister texting a weird guy with green hair called BG and then sneak off into goodness knows where last night, only to return wearing the most hideous red dress I've ever seen, I'm pretty fine."
"I'm sure Jim is cheering you up!" Sally smiled, a romantic sap at the best of times.
"Great," she giggled, "But I missed the worst part. My mom has now decided that our home is some kind of orphanage and we are now going to host some weird exchange student starting here tomorrow. Lydia is bad enough which her 'ghost sightings', I'm now being forced to live with another sulky teenager."
"You haven't even met him yet, he could be dreamy, and he could ask me to go to the dance!" Emily daydreamed, twirling her toxic blue hair around her fingers.
"You can come over this weekend and meet him if you like. I mean you'll have to deal with my mom trying to sell you her new cleansing cream but it's an open house."
"I can't, wouldn't want Finklestien to clock on that I've been spiking his meals," Sally sighed, referring to the strict, cruel scientist who was now her legal guardian. After the death of her parents, Sally was placed in the hands of old Finklestien, her only living relative.
"I might come," Emily replied before crashing into someone in the corridor, causing her to drop all the books she was holding.
"Sorry, my mind is somewhere else" the boy replied, before quickly grabbing his things and moving along.
"Who's he?" Kim uttered, helping Emily pick up her scattered schoolwork.
"Victor Van Dort. He's in my music class. He's pretty shy, don't think I've ever uttered a word to him." Emily responded, thinking of the way Victor sat in class, alone and dedicated to his music, a nervous edge to his voice whenever he spoke. The voice in Emily's head noted that despite his awkward movements and mannerisms, Victor was handsome, very handsome.
Stumbling many times on the way, Victor Van Dort had finally made it to the school's music room, where he spent the majority of his evening playing piano. His parents wanted the best for him, they cared a lot, but sometimes they went too far, their most recent attempt in bettering his life being that they tried to set him up with his next-door neighbour despite the fact that they hadn't even met. The Everglot's had just recently moved into town, yet Victor's parents were already fanaticising about the marvellous wedding and budding children he would have with their daughter Victoria. Things like this we're the reason why Victor stayed late each night at T. Burton High.
Ruffling through his music sheets he soon realised he had accidentally took some from the girl he bumped into. Figuring he'd find her on Facebook later and apologise about the sheets, he placed one of them on the stand and began to learn the tune.
Trying to pin her hair into a perfect bun, Victoria Everglot was suddenly surprised by the harmonious music she could hear from the girls' bathroom. Quickly she tucked in a loose strand of hair and rushed out of the room, determined to see who was playing the tune.
Making her way into the music room down the hall, Victoria recognized the boy playing, he was the son of the fishmongers she had moved next door to. He was so invested into the piece that he didn't even notice her standing there, jumping out of his skin once he did.
A small scream escaped his mouth as he managed to knock the entire piano stool over and fall to the floor, just saving the huge vase of flowers from falling over and smashing.
"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you," she rushed over, "You played beautifully."
"Thank you," he sat back down, feeling embarrassed about falling in front of the girl.
"My mother never let me learn music, she thinks it improper for a young lady." Victoria sighed sitting next to Victor.
"That sounds awful," Victor responded, leaning over towards her only to knock the flowers one again.
Quickly Victoria grabbed them, holding one in her hand.
"I best be leaving," she smiled, impulsively placing one of the flowers in Victor's hands.
Grasping the flower tightly, Victor felt his heart beat a few paces faster at the girls action, it was not often he caught the attention of anyone at Burton.
"Excuse me," he half-yelled as she was about to leave, "What's your name?"
"Victoria," she smiled, "Victoria Everglot."
Victoria Everglot, he laughed to himself, before continuing to play the sheets in front of him.
"You got a dress for the dance yet?" Kim Boggs asked her younger sister Lydia as they both watched television together. Although the sisters seemed like polar opposites, Kim being stereotypically popular with her bright blonde hair and jock boyfriend, Lydia being more of an outsider, many classing her as strange and unusual, in reality they we're close, and despite their bickering they still cared for each other.
"Nope," Lydia responded, "I'm gonna wait till the theme is announced properly. I mean it's obvious Jack will do something spooky like always but I need real details in order to get the perfect dress."
"Oh, I thought your new big red one was for prom?" Kim replied, grinning into her magazine.
"I don't know what you mean," Lydia monotoned.
"I bet BG liked it," Kim laughed.
"Stop prying into my life Kim!" Lydia screeched, getting up to walk away from her sister.
"He seems like a creep Lydia, older than you too, I worry that's all, I see you sneaking out in the middle of the night all for this guy and I want to know why. Also, I stalked his profile and he looks like Mr. Wayne, that's disturbing."
"Leave me alone," Lydia responded, running up to her room.
It all started as a bid to find her parents, her birth-parents. Ever since last year when Lydia found out the Boggs adopted her and Kim, she'd felt more and more like an outsider each day. She'd done some digging and found a guy who could help. He was shifty, his jobs we're to find people and to make people leave, or worse - to get rid of them all together. But she knew that if she really wanted to find the people that gave her and her sister away, she had to use BG – no matter what the cost. In desperate need to talk to the guy, she rang him 3 times before he answered.
"Are you any closer to finding my parents?" she asked quietly, hoping her sister wasn't lurking around.
"Ahhh. Lydia. What do you want? You here to turn up the juice and see what shakes lose?"
"No," she said back sternly, "You heard me, have you gotten any closer to finding my parents."
"Hmmm, I think I found something," he teased her, "but I'll need to think of a payment first."
"I met you last night," she said, scared at the prospect of losing her only chance.
"These aren't my rules," he replied to which Lydia sighed loudly, "Deetz. Their surname is Deetz."
"Deetz," she repeated, "Lydia Deetz."
"Yes, now unless you have any plans to marry me, I'll be out of here."
"That'd be living hell." Lydia rolled her eyes before hanging up. "Snake," she mumbled to herself, thinking of the awful situation she'd ended up in.
Later that night, after returning home, Victor Van Dort finally built up the courage to ask his neighbour to the annual Burton Dance. Not usually one to follow his parent's plea, he hadn't expected himself falling for Victoria yet somehow there he was, nervous and shaking on her doorstep. When he rang the bell, the door was answered right away by a tall stern-looking woman who he presumed to be Mrs. Everglot.
"H-h-hello," he stammered awkwardly, "I'm here to talk to Victoria."
Giving him the once-over, she opened the door wider, "Come in."
Leading to the living room, Victor's nerves multiplied when his parents sat back down on their sofa, glaring at him as he began to talk to their daughter.
"Victor!" she exclaimed, "Hi."
"Hello," he smiled back, "I'm here to-"
"To?" Victoria prompted, wondering why her neighbour was here.
Remembering the flier about the party he had in his pocket, he fumbled through it quickly, only to drop most of his belongings to the floor.
"Sorry," he said painfully as he got on his hands and knees, chasing a wayward coin that rolled across the Everglot's living room. "This is a disaster," he thought to himself when he banged his head against a round coffee table, knocking the contents table onto Mrs. Everglot herself.
"Oh god!" he yelled as he realised he had spilt a huge cup of coffee on Victoria's mother. Grabbing some nearby tissues and begging to dab the coffee from her dress, it took Victor several sections before he realised he was practically rubbing her crotch. Standing up suddenly, Victor glanced at Victoria, embarrassment running through him. Then where any normal human would apologise for everything and help clean up, the awkwardness inside of Victor Van Dort made him do one thing, run.
"She must think I'm such a fool," Victor looked at his reflection in his bedroom mirror, "This day couldn't get any worse!"
"Got any plans for the weekend kids?" Bill Boggs asked enthusiastically.
"I plan to have a stroke from all the MSG in this food," his daughter Lydia glared down at their takeaways, causing her sister to release a high-pitched giggle.
"Well I'm sure Ed wouldn't mind being shown around," Bill responded, referring to the soon to be new arrival at the Boggs home.
"I'm staying at Emily's tonight anyway," Kim said, "I'll have to meet him in the morning."
"Have fun," her dad replied, completely unaware that his daughter was really planning to spend the night at her boyfriend's house.
"Yeah, I will," she smiled.
6:15 PM: neverthebridle: Heyyy. Sorry if this is rude but you bumped into me today and I think you have my sheet music, could you let me know if you do? -Emily from your music.
6:20 PM: victorvdort: Yes! Sorry, I'll give you them on Monday?
6:21 PM: neverthebridle: Thanks! Xx
A few hours later, Edward S. Shand made his way into the living room of the house he would now be calling home. His host, Peg, seemed sweet, chatting brightly as she had driven from the airport to here. If he had the words to make conversation with her then he would, but since his birth Edwards had never been a big talker.
"This is my husband Bill," she began to introduce Edward to her family.
"Nice to meet you Ed!" Bill responded, shaking hands with Edward only to be shocked by how bony and cold his hands were, an issue he'd faced for his whole life.
"Edward," Peg corrected her husband, before moving on to her daughter. "This is Lydia, she's the year below you at school."
Lydia only stared at Edward, something about his pale skin, scarred face and wild black hair seeming weird to her.
"And my other daughter, Kim," she pointed to the photos on the wall, "She'll be home tomorrow, she's out with friends right now."
Making his way to the photos, Edward felt something warm flood through him. She looked like an angel, he thought. Her blonde hair sat evenly on her shoulders, a warm glow radiating from her face. She was grinning playfully – her cheeks stained rosy red, he decided that the type of girl who was always laughing or smiling, always positive.
"I bet you're tired!" Peg walked over to Edward, "If I'm honest we haven't really set up the bed for you downstairs yet but you look like you need the sleep now so I'll just take you to Kim's room, I'll explain all this to her in the morning."
In dire need of sleep, Edward nodded and allowed Peg to bring him to her daughter's room.
Finally building up the courage to redo his prior failed attempt to ask Victoria to the school dance, Victor began to compose a message. It was the perfect plan, he couldn't mess it up over text, he wouldn't fumble his words or nearly burn her mother. After erasing the message and re-writing it around 15 times, he finally wrote:
"Sorry if I seemed rude earlier, I guess I kind of embarrassed myself, eh? But I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me next month? It's alright if you don't wish to but I just think you're really beautiful."
Feeling the confidence, he had lacked before, he pressed send – proud at how well his words had formed.
A response came through fast: "I do! :))) Thankyou Victor. You don't know how much this means xx"
That's when Victor noticed the icon next to the text. At first he'd thought it was a glitch but then he realised that instead of clicking on Victoria he'd clicked the other most recent friend he'd added: Emily Bridle.